When Katica Roy returned from maternity leave several years ago, she found her office in disarray. Her boss, among others, had been let go, and Roy was tasked with managing two additional teams of employees.
Her male colleague was also assigned an additional team. But while he was rewarded with a raise for his new responsibilities, Roy received nothing.
Roy brought up the issue with her new boss, but it went nowhere. So she called human resources, citing the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and ended up getting a raise — with back pay. “It’s a story of success,” says Roy, who declines to name the company she fought. “But the bigger question in my mind was why I had to research my rights in the first place.”
